HDR Photography
My lab is packed with control boxes and oscilloscopes and all manner of signal processing equipment; strung between them all, like the web of a spider on caffeine, is a truly epic array of cables and wires connecting and powering the whole rig. On an average day, when nothing is (seriously) broken, I tend to forget about the mess of electronics, but it’s worth the attention (every now and then) to stop and really appreciate the ordered chaos that facilitates ultrafast spectroscopy.
And now a quick holiday bonus. I wanted to get this one out while it was fresh in my mind: the glorious experience of watching half a dozen Fourth of July fireworks shows simultaneously. It’s moments like this, gazing over the bay and its gorgeous lights, that I really appreciate living here.
The Bay Area has a set of dichotomies that I’ve always loved fitting into photographs. Here, we have the elegance of San Francisco herself, with towers and an array of sailing boats, contrasted with the decay of the East Bay and its own host of boats.
While not the most attractive rose garden in the world, there is something attractive about Berkeley Rose Garden’s terraces, which office a nice backdrop for the attached tennis courts and are good for a nice relaxing afternoon on a sunny day if you want to get out of downtown, but not necessarily out of Berkeley. Being situated up in the hills it is surprisingly quiet and I was able to get surprisingly unobstructed views of the rows of plants.
A recent trip to Golden Gate Fields’ delicious/seductive/nauseating dollar days (dollar beers and dollar hot dogs for everyone!) gave me a chance to shoot not only the races themselves (more of that to come later), but also to shoot the mostly-empty rows of seats. They’s all plastic, and over time they slowly lose color and bleach from bright orange to dull, powdery brown. Thus follows the lifecycle of a chair. Gazing out over the ordered sea, their slow march to replacement is obvious.
The fire trails up in the Berkeley hills are notable for the views they reveal at the top, the payout for climbing the hills on foot, but on the way to top you can find some fairly interesting nature-filled set pieces like this shady water way.
There are many times when HDR helps us to capture images that appear more similar to what the human eye naturally perceives than a camera would normally be capable. In other cases, however, HDR reveals features that we might never have perceived. In this case, the complete intricacies of a gas-discharge lamp acting as a sign are revealed. (As a neurotic chemist, I can’t properly call it a neon light–those only glow orange!)
I was amazed when I first saw the public fishing pier down at the Berkeley marina as it seems to go on forever. It really is astounding how far out into the bay it extends, even as you walk down there. It’s also always packed with people of all skill levels attempting to get something to bite.
Today’s image is the result of a little experiment I did, in which I limited myself to shooting only with a simple prime lens. This is perhaps my favorite image that stemmed from the experience: Berkeley’s historic Lewis Hall on a rainy afternoon. The reflections from the wet concrete buildings, the grid of the plaza’s brick pattern, and the intricate array of the hall’s windows combine to produce such a strong sense of place. In contrast with these hard, angular, man-made structures are the curves of the redwood trees. Would the picture have been better, had I taken it with a wide-angle zoom lens? I’m really not sure.
Days like these remind me of home, and that anywhere there’s water and a breeze you’ll attract a virtual navy of small sail craft on any remotely nice day.
Just around the corner from one of my favorite buildings, I found this spot where the curve of a footpath mirrors the curve of the passing road. The last moments of the day make for tiny beams of sunlight around my feet and tapping the tops of trees across the road. The start of summer is a perfect time in California.
Oakland isn’t always the most gorgeous place to behold, with more than its fair share of graffiti-laden, disused industrial areas. (You can see little hints of them for yourself in today’s shot.) When I get down to the San Francisco Bay, and the tenor changes, I can appreciate it so much more. Unlike the east seaboard of the U.S., much of which has a consistent architectural style, the Bay is a mish-mash of little buildings that fulfilled whatever roles were needed when they were constructed. I get a warm, satisfied feeling from the way the chaotic clutter of boats separates the sometimes-distressing Oakland from the clean, crisp water of the Bay.
While down at the marina recently I caught a glimpse of this guy, who had apparently found something interesting or perhaps tasty and was taking it somewhere a bit more private to enjoy. I was actually surprised at how well I could capture that moment just before lift-off, the intricate dance that birds do before they take to the skies.
San Diego’s Civic Center, as I’ve shown previously, is a pretty surreal place. There’s certainly a feeling that you’re supposed to be in the nexus of the city’s of law and justice, but literally just around the corner, the buildings are plastered with signs for race tracks and the curbs and lined with homeless folks. I liked the way this image showed the broad sidewalks mostly abandoned, with only traces of waking life here and there.
North Berkeley has some of the most picturesque homes in all of Berkeley, like this one perched above one of the many creeks criss-crossing Berkeley. Like this one they are rarely as fancy or as large as the homes you find up in the hills but somehow they seem more like they’re actually someone’s home.
Decaseconds 
